Treatment

Rain pours down on Rosalina’s small home. The tropical landscape is dark and all the colors are desaturated. Rose lies sleeping in her compact, somewhat messy room. Lightning crashes outside the window and she bolts up in bed. She sighs and scratches the back of her head tiredly. After getting dressed, she trudges to school, fighting against the wind and rain. She stumbles several times on her way there. Another student passes her on his bike and accidentally splashes Rose with muddy water. She glares at him but the wind doesn’t let up so she can’t stand still and fume.

The interior of Rosalina’s school is dull and gray. The classrooms and hallways aren’t empty but they are uninteresting. Outside, the downpour of rain continues. After removing her rain gear, Rosalinda sits in the back of her classroom. She is initially attentive but everything is painfully boring. The clock ticks loudly as the teacher drones on. Rosalina shifts repeatedly in her seat and rearranges her papers. Slowly, the teacher’s voice almost entirely fades away. The sound of rain takes over. Rose attempts to distract herself but ends up doing essentially a seated version of the pee-pee dance. Finally, she raises her hand, asks permission to go to the bathroom and bolts into the hallway. She walks briskly towards the bathrooms but, as she reaches the girl’s restroom, a third colorful bathroom door draws itself into existence. Rosalina frowns in confusion at the door. She looks back at the girl’s bathroom then curiously peaks inside the mystery restroom.

This bathroom is easily as large as Rosalina’s classroom, if not bigger. The ceiling stretches up to give enough room for a huge tree to grow next to the stalls. Small, strange woodland creatures and fairies scamper over the tree. A duwende stands at the base of the tree, shaking his fist at one of the troublesome little animals. A waterfall sits directly behind the mirrors and sinks. Either a tikbalang or a bungisngis is washing his hands when Rosalinda appears. He notices her bewildered expression and assures her this is a unisex bathroom. Rosalinda’s expression doesn’t look reassured. However, after glancing back outside at the gray hallway, Rose goes inside the surreal bathroom.

None of the creatures pay much attention to Rose. Nevertheless, she sneaks slowly over to the stall, peering around as she moves. She purses her lips and checks inside the stall. The toilet is normal for a public restroom. Rosalina sighs and looks relieved. After one last check around the bathroom, she slips inside the stall. A large, hideous she-beast comes out of one of the other stalls and fixes her make-up in a mirror. Rosalina flushes the toilet and starts to exit the stall when she hears a gurgle. When she turns around, the toilet begins gushing rainbows. Her mouth practically falls off of her face is so horrified. Hesitantly, she closes the lid and tries to sneak out the same way she snuck in.

Unfortunately, the toilet springs to life. It howls and complains about Rosalinda’s manners. All the creatures in the bathroom turn and stare at Rosalinda. She stands frozen in place for an awkwardly long moment then moves back inside the stall. The toilet holds out a plunger for her and she takes it hesitantly. Her expression is one of complete disgust and embarrassment as uses the plunger to stop the overflowing rainbows. The toilet dismisses her, returning to its inanimate state. Rosalinda exits the stall and glances up to check if everyone is still staring. They all seem content now and go back to doing their own things. Rosalinda sighs in relief. Then, she notices she has some rainbow sticking to her. She frowns and goes to the sinks, where she scrubs it off. Once she is clean, she walks to the door, giving one parting glance to the strange bathroom before exiting. Once she is out, the door melts away. As she walks down the hallway to her classroom, Rose leaves shining, rainbow colored footprints on the gray floor.